Watching Pirated Films NOT A Crime : Bombay HC

“The offense is not in viewing, but in making a prejudicial distribution, a public exhibition or letting for sale or hire without appropriate permission copyright-protected material,” Justice Gautam Patel said.

Bombay HC has asked ISPs to drop the line “‘viewing, downloading, exhibiting or duplicating‘ a particular film is a penal offence” from the ‘error message’ and directed them to display a more generic message on URLS to be blocked for infringement of copyright.